1) Heat olive oil in large pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Brown in batches, 4-6 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate, reserve the pot.
2) Add the celery, carrots, onions, thyme, and garlic to the drippings in the pot and cook, stirring until the vegetables begin to soften. (About 5-7 minutes) Add the chicken, bay leaves, and 10 cups of water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the chicken is cooked through, 25-30 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and transfer the chicken to a plate; let it cool. Shred the chicken with two forks and return it to the pot. Discard the skin and bones.
3) Whisk together 1/2 cup of the flour, and 2 cups of the cooking liquid, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly whisk the flour mixture back into the pot and simmer until slightly thickened, about 8-10 minutes. Add the chicken back to the pot.
4) Make the dumplings: Whisk together the remaining 2 cups of flour, the baking powder, baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter. Add buttermilk and mix with fork. Add flour as needed, and kneed dough.
5) Roll & cut dumplings into squares. Place dumplings in simmering pot, stir to submerge as needed. The dumplings will float to the top when they are cooked.
6) Serve with chopped parsley on top for garnish, if desired.

Cream
the butter and sugar together until well combined. Add in the ricotta, eggs,
and vanilla and mix until well combined. In a separate bowl, mix your flour,
baking powder, and baking soda together – mix well before adding it to the wet
ingredients. Add about ½ cup of the flour into the wet mixture, and mix until
combined. Repeat, until all of the flour is mixed into the wet ingredients. The
original recipe says to use a small cookie scoop to make balls roughly 1
teaspoon in size. I used my medium sized scoop so they are slightly larger. The
1 tsp size baking time is 8-10 minutes, and for my larger ones it’s about 15
minutes – I have a gas oven which tends to need a little more time than electric
ovens. You want the cookies to just barely be brown on the bottom… just lightly
brown.

After
they are all cool, mix your ingredients for the glaze. Use a cookie rack, and
dip the tops of each cookie in the glaze – then top them with sprinkles. Work
quickly, and sprinkle after glazing because it dries really quickly. Enjoy!

Mix all together. We used our punch decanter rather than the punch bowl I used last year. The entire thing was gone by the end of the day - with just 6 people in the house. If you're making for a larger group, I'd double or triple everything. The cranberries are really festive, and help keep everything cool.